BREAKING: Offshore confirmation: Ministers to sign TPPA in NZ on 4 February 2016
The ministers from the twelve countries who negotiated the the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) will sign it in New Zealand on 4 February, a government spokesperson from Chile has confirmed.
The New Zealand government has made no formal announcement, despite reports that it would host the meeting since the APEC summit last November.
Consistent with the government’s obsessively secrecy throughout the TPPA process, we have to get confirmation of what is happening in our own country from offshore.
Polls have shown the government doesn’t have popular support for the deal. Presumably it wants to limit the chance for New Zealanders to make their opposition heard, we were reliably told by offshore sources some time ago that the meeting is in Auckland, but we expect the government to try to keep the actual venue secret until much closer to the day.
A series of high profile public meetings has been planned for the main cities at the end of January, starting with Auckland Town Hall on the evening of 26th January, followed by Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.
The star attraction will be Lori Wallach, director of Washington based Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, the organisation founded by Ralph Nader. She last toured New Zealand when the TPPA ministerial meeting was held here in late 2010.
The US holds the key to the fate of the TPPA. Lori Wallach probably knows more than anyone about what is really happening in the US Congress and across the corporate lobbies and civil society groups in America. Her insights will provide a reality check in advance of the pr spin that is bound to surround the signing.
Thanks for this information, Jane.
According to Gordon Campbell, the USA will be unable to sign the TPPA, because it is being opposed by the Republicans in the Senate:
“For months, it has seemed increasingly unlikely that a Republican- dominated Congress would ratify the TPP, and the battle lines have now been drawn. Yesterday (16 December 2014), Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell told the White House not to bring the controversial trade pact before Congress until after the presidential election has been resolved in November, 2016.”
Is this correct? And if so, what would the implications of the USA not signing be?
+100 …”Polls have shown the government doesn’t have popular support for the deal. Presumably it wants to limit the chance for New Zealanders to make their opposition heard…”
…and where is the Opposition New Zealand Labour Party on the TPP?
…still sitting on the fence?
BIG PROTEST MARCH………… ?????
There is a difference between signing and ratification. Obama can sign on 4 Feb, after giving 90 days notice to Congress that he intended to do so. The approval of US Congress is needed for the implementing legislation that must be passed before the TPPA can come into force in the US and there are lots of other ways that US politics will make its presence felt. See my process paper at https://tppascratchspace.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/jk-on-treaty-process.pdf
Interested to know if Key and Groser have considered the long term ramifications for NZ of signing an agreement written up by US Corporate Lawyers?
We as NZ Taxpayers will be picking up the tab if anything goes wrong?
If TDB wants constructive comments it will have to sort out the Math Captcha problem.
Typing a comment and copying it, then attempting to enter and failing after a matter of a few seconds, updating the page and pasting at a frantic pace in the hope of beating some ridiculous time frame deters all but the most determined posters. And in the end we cannot be bothered.
Ugh !!!…. had a Windows update and lost my sound icon on the toolbar !!!…
Had to refresh the whole doggone computer and sigh up again to TDB… still.. I guess people deserve a holiday from opinion lol !!!
We are all indebted to Jane Kelsey for her efforts so we all need to make an effort to send the signals to our local National MP’s that we will remember the treasonous intent they are sending us into a global Corporate slavery world where they are not interested in their activities in NZ because Government is signing away our powers to fight for a fair deal from them as employers and industries involved in our economy.
They should be reminded that an election is next year and they will pay for their abandonment of us all.
+100 CLEANGREEN…always well said…you should stand for Parliament for NZF
That makes a big fat liar out of John Key who promised us hand on heart that the TPPA would first be put to Parliament before it was signed!!
What will be the point of putting it to a Select Committee for public submissions if it’s a done deal?
None.
It is obvious the only way to stop this is if we are ALL physically there on the day take a day off work they are banking on us not being there. We ALL NEED to be there heavy protests riot if we must’ I will have my own blood spill if i have to. So Feb 4th Sky Tower?????? We need to go Hone Heke on this but 2016 styles we need to get extreme it is sad but may be the only way to stop such an abomination.
It is obvious the only way to stop this is if we are ALL physically there on the day take a day off work they are banking on us not being there. We ALL NEED to be there heavy protests riot if we must’ I will have my own blood spill if i have to. So Feb 4th Sky Tower?????? We need to go Hone Heke on this but 2016 styles we need to get extreme it is sad but may be the only way to stop such an abomination.
itsourfuture.org.nz have a petition to J Key & T Groser opposing TPPA. When signing it I requested the binding referendum on the NZ flag be changed to a binding referendum on signing the TPPA.
Jane Kelsey deserves the thanx of us all for her intelligent & articulate opposition to the TPPA sellout.